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Spying 'serious matter': Turkey

August 18, 2014

Turkey has summoned Germany's ambassador over a media report that Berlin had been spying on Ankara for years. The Foreign Ministry said such espionage would be "absolutely unacceptable."

https://p.dw.com/p/1CwPb
German ambassador to Ankara Eberhard Pohl seated in car. . Halil Sagirkaya / Anadolu Agency
Image: picture alliance/Anadolu Agency

Turkey on Monday summoned the German ambassador in Ankara, Eberhard Pohl (pictured above), after news magazine Der Spiegel reported on the weekend that Germany's intelligence services had been spying on its NATO ally since 2009.

In a statement, Turkey's foreign ministry said such spying would be "a serious matter" if the report were true, and called on the German government to issue a full explanation.

"It is expected that the German authorities present an official and satisfactory explanation of the claims reported by German media and end these activities immediately if the claims are true," the ministry said in a statement.

It added that the report threatened to harm Turkish and German security cooperation.

In its report on Saturday, Der Spiegel cited a confidential document listing Turkey as a target for intelligence gathering by the German foreign intelligence agency, BND. Spiegel said the BND had also listened in to calls made by US Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor Hillary Clinton.

Germany itself has complained for months about alleged US spying activities, including eavesdropping on telephone calls by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel issued a stern reprimand to the US at the time the allegations were made in the German media last year based on documents leaked by former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

tj/nm (dpa, Reuters, AP)